The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is warning consumers to immediately stop using alcohol-burning or other liquid fuel tabletop fire pits following two deaths and at least 60 injuries in the past five years.
Tabletop fire pits — also called fire pots, miniature fireplaces and personal fireplaces — are small, portable fireplaces that can be placed on a tabletop or other surface both indoors and outdoors. Manufacturers tout these fire pits to consumers for decorative purposes, to set a mood when entertaining, and to create ambiance, heat and warmth. Tabletop fire pits are popular with urban dwellers, who have limited patio or balcony space. They also appeal to consumers because they are eco-friendly and low-maintenance and use clean-burning fuels, typically isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, which is readily found in drug stores. Because tabletop fire pits burn clean, they can even be used to toast marshmallows and to make S’mores.
Major retailers and e-commerce sites including Amazon, WayFair, Walmart, Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond sell tabletop fire pits, and they have been featured on lifestyle-focused blogs and TV shows including Oprah Daily, the Rachael Ray Show and the home-shopping network QVC. The Rachael Ray Show gifted a FLIKRFIRE Tabletop Fireplace to every member of its studio audience and dubbed it “The Tiniest Fireplace You Didn’t Know You Needed.”
But novelty and enjoyable lifestyle aside, tabletop fire pits violate a voluntary safety standard set by standards organization ASTM International because they require users to pour isopropyl alcohol or other liquid fuel into an open container or bowl and then ignite the pooled liquid in the same location where it was poured. This is a defective product design that presents two separate and potentially deadly hazards for uncontrollable pool fires and flame-jetting.
What Are Pool Fires and Flame-Jetting?
Isopropyl alcohol, ethanol/bioethanol, and similar liquid fuels used in tabletop fire pits burn with flame temperatures over 1,600°F and can cause third-degree burns in less than one second. When the fuel is ignited in the same location where it is poured, an uncontrollable pool fire can occur in which flames suddenly burn across the surface of pooled or spilled fuel and spread beyond the fire pit product.
Flame-jetting, a second hazard, can occur when refilling alcohol or other liquid-burning fire pits if any flame is present. Since tabletop fire pits are smokeless and odorless, a small flame in the fire pit can be hard to see and users may attempt to refuel the fire pit thinking that the fire is completely extinguished, when it is not. When this happens, the flame in the fire pit can ignite the fuel as it is poured, which causes a sudden ignition of the fuel in the fuel container which, as described by the CPSC, “forcefully expels burning vapor and liquid from the mouth of the container, resulting in a blowtorch-like effect.” The CPSC created a video that demonstrates this blowtorch-like effect and how bystanders, even at a distance, can quickly be engulfed in flames.
Since July 2023, the CPSC has required that devices called “flame arrestors” be used on gas cans and other portable fuel containers for the purpose of preventing flame-jetting. Flame arrestors resemble a screen that is built into a fuel container’s opening. This screen allows the fuel to flow out, while reducing the chance that a flame will enter the container. Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, which manufacturers commonly promote for use with tabletop fire pits, is typically sold in containers without flame arrestors because its primary use is as an antiseptic, not as a fuel source.
Two Warnings and a Recall
The CPSC’s December 19, 2024 warning does not refer to a specific brand of fire pit. However, in a separate warning that same day the CPSC urged consumers to stop using FLIKRFIRE Tabletop Fireplaces following the deaths of a 93-year-old couple who were seriously burned when a third person attempted to refill a FLIKRFIRE that appeared to be extinguished and in the wake of at least three other incidents involving a FLIKRFIRE that resulted in users sustaining extensive third- or fourth-degree burns.
With respect to the elderly couple, their daughter, who was sitting around the fireplace celebrating Father’s Day with her parents when the incident happened, shared her family’s story in a TV news interview hoping to save other families from similar tragedies. “All of a sudden these flames just shot out, and it was that blowtorch that’s all I can describe it as that totally took over both my parents’ bodies,” she said. “There was no time to react in any other way than I did but to just get up and start screaming and try to help, and I was trying to bat the flames out on my mother with my hands. And my dad too, and I would look at her and have to go to my dad.”
Other instances of flame-jetting have been reported in the CPSC’s SaferProduct.gov public database. One consumer reported a November 2024 incident involving a Terraen Tabletop Fire Pit manufactured by Samsonico that “exploded dispersing flames” in her living room. Three people sustained second-degree burns, with one person having to drop and roll because their clothing caught fire. The report states that the carpet and a chair also caught fire and that a fire extinguisher was used to put out the flames.
In a typical “blame the victim” response, Samsonico said it reviewed video of the incident and that the flame-jetting was caused by a user who poured liquid fuel directly into the fireplace’s fuel cup while it was still lit or shortly afterward when it was still too hot to refuel. Samsonico noted that its product instructions warn users not to refill the fire pit while it is burning, but did not acknowledge that its product design may invite this type of error. Samsonico wrote that while it “feels compassion” for the injuries reported, it “does not feel responsible.” Without admitting liability or wrongdoing, Samsonico said it has voluntarily discontinued future sales of the fire pit.
One month before the above incident, Colsen Fire Pits recalled nearly 90,000 Colsen-branded tabletop fire pits due to the risk of flame-jetting as well as the risk that alcohol can “splash, spill or leak out of the fire pit reservoir during use, causing a flash fire that can spread and create larger hotter flames, that can escape the unit.”
The CPSC received 31 reports of flame-jetting and flames escaping the Colsen fire pits from their concrete container, resulting in 19 burn injuries. Two incidents resulted in third-degree burns to more than 40 percent of the victims’ bodies, and at least six incidents involved surgery, prolonged medical treatment, admission to burn treatment facilities, short-term disability, loss of function, physical therapy or permanent disfigurement.
One incident reported in the media involved a woman who, while entertaining friends, was burned on more than 40 percent of her body from flame-jetting when her husband refueled their Colsen fire pit with isopropyl alcohol, which was Colsen’s recommended fuel source. “He went to pour the liquid in. As soon as that liquid was in the fire pit, it just was kind of like a fire ball, kind of an explosion,” she said in a TV interview. “I just remember hearing screams and saying ‘You’re on fire!’ And I just remember kind of trying to slap off the fire, if you will. In those types of moments, you are in so much shock that you’re just kind of working to stay alive.”
Another flame-jetting incident associated with a Colsen tabletop fire pit that was reported to the CPSC involved a 33-year-old woman who was using the fire pit outside with her boyfriend. When he added fuel to the fire pit, it “exploded,” and her shirt ignited. Her boyfriend grabbed her and put out the flames in a “stop drop and roll maneuver.” She sustained burns to her arms, left leg, abdomen, neck and face that required Emergency Department treatment.
Colsen fire pits were sold online from the company’s website and at Amazon, Wayfair, Walmart, Sharper Image, FlipShop, Grommet, Meta and TikTok from January 2020 to July 2024 for between $40 and $90. The recall notice advises consumers to immediately stop using the fire pits and to dispose of them. It says that the company does not have the financial resources to offer a remedy.
Other serious incidents involving tabletop fire pits that have grabbed headlines or been reported to the CPSC through its SaferProducts.gov public database include:
- A woman who had just set up a tabletop fire pit that she was gifted when it erupted in flames and set her on fire, causing her to jump in her backyard pool to put out the flames. She sustained second- and third-degree burns all over her body and was hospitalized and treated by the burn unit for four days. During the holiday season, she contacted a TV station to share her story after searching for Yankee swap gifts online and discovering that tabletop fire pits were the number one gift listed for under $30.
- A 5-year-old girl sitting four feet away from a tabletop fire pit had her hair catch on fire when her grandfather lit the fire pit and it “produced a very large, unexpected fireball.” The child covered her face with her hands, which prevented significant facial injuries, according to the report to the CPSC. Her family extinguished the fire in her hair with a bath towel. The child was treated in the Emergency Department for burns to the back of her hands.
- A consumer reported that they were using a tabletop fire pit when “flames leaped out catching our daughter and 12-week-old grandson on fire.” The report states: “Luckily our entire family was all around to assist in extinguishing the fire. This could have been a devastating life changing event.”
- A 15-year-old girl sustained second- and third-degree burns over 22 percent of her body when flames jetted across a kitchen island while she and her friends were making S’mores using a tabletop fire pit.
- A consumer who was entertaining several guests in his backyard was pouring gel fuel into a tabletop fire pit when there was a “flash of fire” that caused a guest to sustain burn injuries to his lower legs, back and arms. According to the report, the fire pit had not previously been lit that evening. The victim was taken into the residence and into the shower where his clothes and burned skin were removed, and he went home. The next day he sought treatment at a hospital Emergency Department.
If Tabletop Fire Pits Are Dangerous, Why Are They Still on the Market?
Pursuant to federal law, the CPSC cannot unilaterally recall unsafe products without a company’s cooperation. If a company refuses to cooperate, the CPSC must engage in protracted litigation or administrative proceedings to force a recall. Unfortunately, due to legal restrictions on what information the CPSC can publicly share without a product manufacturer’s permission, the status of the CPSC’s efforts (if any) to get the manufacturers of tabletop fire pits to recall their products is unknown.
What Should I Do If I Have Been Injured By a Tabletop Fire Pit?
Edward S. Goldis, a partner at Feldman Shepherd, recommends contacting an attorney who is experienced in product liability and fire injury litigation as soon as possible if you have been injured by a tabletop fire pit.
Goldis observed that product liability law requires that all products be safe for their intended as well as expected use. Regarding tabletop fire pits, he said, this extremely dangerous class of products is an example of the adage; “Just because you can, does not mean you should.” Given the alarming number of incidents and the unexpected manner in which these products cause serious harm to consumers, it is clear that they are not safe for use and should not have been sold in the first place.
Goldis, together with co-founding shareholder Alan M. Feldman and shareholder Daniel J. Mann, has secured substantial recoveries on behalf of people who have been seriously injured or killed by consumer products that have caused fires.
The firm’s notable results in fire cases include:
- $36.5 million wrongful death settlement for the family of two victims who suffered extensive burn injuries when a propane cylinder exploded on a food truck.
- $18.3 million settlement against the manufacturer of a portable electric heater that caused a fire in a Philadelphia rowhouse which resulted in two fatalities and catastrophic injuries to an infant.
- $6.1 million settlement for the family of an 80-year-old man who died in an apartment fire caused by a gas explosion.
- A confidential wrongful death settlement for the parents of two young boys who died in a house fire caused by a defective clothes dryer.
- Multi-million-dollar recoveries for the families of firemen killed in the line of duty while fighting Philadelphia’s worst office building fire.
- $10 million recovery for survivors of a fuel-fed fire in a minivan.